It’s a breath of air for Temacapulín, Jalisco. The newly-elected governor of Jalisco has stated by Twitter that Temacapulín (Temaca) will not be flooded. He says, “Jalisco should be the main beneficiary of the decisions and not suffer. We won’t flood Temacapulín.”

For years, the inhabitants of Temaca have lived with the fear of losing their home town due to the construction of the Zapotillo dam.

Not flooding the town of Temaca would be possible if the dam curtain height was reduced. In the original project, the dam was to have been 80 metres high and would not have flooded Temaca (but would require dikes which have some security concerns for the town). Later, the project was changed to be 105 metres high and this meant losing Temaca. There is no clarity yet of what are the specific plans now.

The people of Temaca have stated in a press release that this is the result of their years of struggle and having the right arguments to save their town. They have demanded that the elected governor should make his statement by Twitter official, that he should present a clear plan of how the project will be modified (that guarantees the safety of Temaca), and that the project should be suspended while this is clarified. To read their statement (in Spanish), please go to http://www.mapder.lunasexta.org/?p=2385.